When a system manager or the like performs a work (hereinafter, “work process”) on an information system, it is general that the system manager has conventionally used an operational manual described with a natural language. For example, a work process for applying a patch to a server is performed by using an operational manual in which the procedure and rule of such a work is described.
However, because an information system has recently become large-scale and complicated, the procedure and rule requested by a work process also become complicated. This makes it difficult to investigate the validity of a work process manually and this complexity is now one reason to cause failure. Moreover, in regard to an information system that is becoming large-scale and complicated, a few people have fragmentary knowledge in many cases. The segmentalization of knowledge makes it difficult to grasp the behavior of the information system, and causes frequent failures. An information system has high significance as a system for supporting a life infrastructure, and thus it is strongly desired to improve the reliability of the operational management of the information system.
Therefore, a technology for mechanically testing the validity of a work process has been recently proposed. For example, there is proposed a technology for describing a work process by using a UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagram and testing whether such a UML diagram satisfies a predetermined constraint or rule. As for the examples of conventional technology, see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-275749, and Toru Sasaki, Kozo Okano, and Shinji Kusumoto, “Consistency Management of UML Model Based on Constraint Rules and Repair Actions”, Journal D of The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Vol. J90-D, No. 4, pp. 1005-1013, 2007.
However, the conventional technology has a problem in that a consistency test can be performed on only a single UML diagram, and the constraint and rule to be satisfied between UML diagrams are not cyclopaedically tested when a work process is described with a plurality of UML diagrams. In an information system that is becoming large-scale and complicated, a work process is described by using a plurality of diagrams in many cases. Therefore, it is desired that a technology for cyclopaedically testing a work process described with a plurality of UML diagrams is realized.
Although it is possible to describe a work process by using a method (for example, programming language) that is easily analyzed by a computer to cyclopaedically perform a consistency test, it puts enormous burden on a system manager or the like. Moreover, a work process described with a method that is easily analyzed by a computer is generally hard for a human being to understand, and likely to cause failure against the intension of its creator.